Four Things on a Friday

Today I wanted to share a few things I've been enjoying and doing lately.

Fitness
With summer back, our local FIA group is back to having morning workouts three times a week at 5:45. This works out so well for me. I get my workouts done and over with before the day starts. It's great. With that, I've been hitting my goal of working out 3+ times a week. Woohoo!!!
What is FIA? It stands for Females in Action. It's a free, peer-led fitness group that focus on fitness, friendship, and community. If you're invested, look them up because there all over SC as well as several other states, so there's a good chance there's a group that meets near you.

Reading
I've also do some good summer reading. It can be difficult to find time to read but lately I've been able to sneak in some me-time and get some good reading accomplished. I've ranked the ones I read from best to least favorite, although none of them were awful.

1. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter- A young movie star ends up on a remote island in the 1960's with a secret.
Great read, especially if you're a fan of old movie actors.
2. Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple- When a young girl's mother mysteriously disappears, she does everything she can to track her down which includes uncovering her mysterious past.
Interesting characters and interesting plots twists.
3. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty- A letter is written that shouldn't be read and when it is it can never be unread. The wife and other's feel the repercussions of her husband's secret.
The multiple character points of view took me a minute to get used to but the story was interesting and captivating.
4. The Girl in the Garden by Melanie Wallace- An abandoned girl and her baby are taken in by a cast of characters in a coastal New England town.
The writing took a little to get used to but the story was good.
5. Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll- A woman with a past returns home and doing so revisits the demons that still haunt her.
It took me a while to get into this one but it finally picked up even though it ended up being predictable.

Shopping

I've got a girls beach trip coming up in a few weeks and I did a little shopping for the trip. I've got a few more things I'd like to get but here are a couple that are making the trip with me.
First, soft matching pajamas. As lovely as my large t-shirts are that I normally sleep in, I thought I step it up and get a nice matching set. These are on sale and the pants are so comfy I may not take them off. Sale alert! Dillard's is taking an additional 30% off clearance now through Saturday online and in store, no code needed... so get your booties there now. While your there check these pjs that are also on sale, here and here.

shirt // capris

sunglasses on sale for $6// hat (similar) // coverup 

Home

I'm so excited because Pierce and I finally bit the bullet and bought an awesome washer and dryer set. We installed it on Tuesday and by Wednesday Pierce had washed AND folded all the dirty laundry in the house... so I know he's excited too. The plan now is to get rid of the crappy wire shelving, paint the dark brown walls and refresh the flooring to totally update the laundry room and make it a functional space. I can't wait to get started and show off our before and afters. Here's what we got.

washer // dryer // pedestal

I hope you all have a fun, safe weekend celebrating Independence Day!

Sunday Sale Shopping

It's been a minute since I've had time to shop but I this weekend I finally found a few minutes to myself to do some looking, wishing, and even a little buying. Last week when we were in Greenville I stopped in Anthropologie and spied a some really cute stuff. Which isn't surprising since you can always count on Anthro to have some cute, unique looks. I had the boys with me so I couldn't do as much shopping as I would have liked, so this weekend I was able to really shop, albeit online, but that's where you can get the sizes and the deals. They've got a nice sale going on so I thought I'd share some of my favorites.

Mika One-Shoulder Dress - under $30

Concert Off-the-Shoulder Dress

Mavis Floral Maxi Dress

Waverley Dress

Onia Jemalyn Striped One-Piece Swimsuit

Aserti Tassel Drop Earrings

Forged Serving Set

Crafting with the Kids- Slime Time

I have always loved crafting and now that I have children it gives me a reason to try out new crafts with my playful little assistants. It seems like diy slime is the must-do thing this summer. Every craft store has a stand with slime making materials and if you search in on Pinterest your likely to get a multitude of recipes all claiming to be the best and easiest slime.
When I searched I had a few things that I was looking for in a recipe. 1st- simple household ingredients. 2nd- I wanted slime that stayed together and wasn't overly sticky. I don't want to have to be cleaning slime off of furniture, clothes, or children. I came across two recipes that met my requirements and I figured we could make both and see which we decided was the "best."

The first recipe we tried was for Fluffy Slime. I followed the recipe and instructions posted here from Schooling A Monkey.

Fluffy Slime

Ingredients:

1 cup of Barbasol white shaving cream
1 cup of glue (we used 2 bottles of standard white glue)
1/2 cup of Sta-Flo laundry starch
food coloring (optional)

1. Add glue to a large mixing bowl

2. Add food coloring to the glue, stir

3. Mix in the liquid starch

It will start to get stringy almost immediately. Continue to stir with either a spoon or you can mix with you hands. You will want to stir for several minutes until the mixture becomes less stringy and more like a mass. For mine, there was still a considerable amount of starch in the bowl but the slime was fluffy. I removed it from the liquid and squeezed it to try to remove any additional liquid. I also patted it off with a paper towel which worked well to remove the excess liquid and did not get stuck to the slime. 

4. Play 

It's was just that easy. Slime can be stored in an airtight container or ziplock bag.

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The second slime recipe we tried was a more standard, oozy slime. I found the recipe for this slime here from Preschool Inspirations. 

Oozy Slime

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of glue (we used almost 2 bottles of standard white glue)

1 cup hot water

1/2 teaspoon of Borax

food coloring (optional)

glitter (optional)

1. In a large bowl add 1/2 tsp of Borax to 1 cup of hot water. Stir until dissolved. Let cool.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together 3/4 cup of glue with 1/2 cup of cool water. Add food coloring. We added glitter but you can't tell if you use white glue. If you want to add glitter, add it at this point, but realize you won't really be able to see it unless you use clear glue.

3. Pour the glue mixture into the cooled water/Borax mixture

4. The mixture will start to get stringy almost immediately. Stir for several minutes using either a spoon or your hands. Once it feels like it is less stringy and starting to form a mass, remove from the liquid and knead. Try to squeeze out any excess liquid. 

I would not recommend blotting this slime with a paper towel. It is sticky and the towel will stick to it. 

5. Play

I don't have as much in this photo because I tried to dry it off with a towel which immediately got stuck to it, so I threw that part away.

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So which was our favorite? Both slime were easy to make with simple ingredients, so the deciding factor was how the slime played. 

The fluffy slime wasn't sticky, very squishy, not too oozy, and broke apart fairly cleanly without leaving little pieces everywhere. 

The oozy slime was a bit stickier, left behind more pieces when "broken", and was stringier/oozy.

The winner is... 

... Fluffy Slime!!!

This stuff is seriously awesome. The way is felt was weird but also kind of addictive. I found myself just holding it and working it in my hands when I was talking or bored. Emmett loved it too. This was by far the favorite of everyone who played with the two. So give it a try. Once you buy the shaving cream and liquid starch, you'll have plenty of ingredients to make tons more. I know we'll be making another batch very soon.

FYI: from what I've read, if the slime gets in hair or on clothes, use vinegar to dissolve it away.

Weekend Wrap-up

As I'm sure you're all fully aware, this past weekend was Father's Day. I bought Pierce his Father's Day present a few weeks back. He picked it out and couldn't wait until this weekend so he's been using it since I bought it for him. So what did I get him? For the main gift I bought him this watch which I suggested in my guy gifts post found here. Since the present had already been given, I didn't have to stress over that but I did ask him what he wanted to do for the weekend. We haven't visited Pierce's parents in months, so that's what he decided he'd like to do. We packed and headed up to Greenville to let the boys spend some quality time with their Gram and Pops. 

On Saturday morning we visited the Greenville Zoo which the boys loved. It's a small zoo but has a good variety of animals that you can get up close and personal with. 

The leopard was their favorite.

After the zoo we went to downtown to Greenville to get bite to eat and do a little shopping. Greenville has a great downtown that has been revitalized with lots a wonderful restaurants and shops. We stopped in Mast General Store, O.P. Taylor's Toys, and Anthropologie to name a few. Then grabbed lunch at Trio Cafe. 

I got the ham florentine calzone was yummy. 

After the shopping, we headed back to the house and worked on a few crafts for the kids. This was Oliver's first time painting and he loved it! I think he could have painted for hours but were doing it outside and about 20 minutes in it started to rain. Thankfully he had enough time to paint some lovely pictures for daddy and Gram. 

The boys were going to have to have baths after the painting (Ollie's belly was it's own canvas) so once it started raining, I let them play in the rain. 

I rained for a while but I had checked the weather and packed several craft options. Slime is all the rage and Emmett has been dying to make some. We tried out a couple of recipes I found on Pinterest. I'll share the recipes and our reviews of each along with which was Emmett's favorite in a future post. 

Which one is his favorite slime?

On Sunday the boys gave Pierce his painting and some other crafts I helped them make for him. We like to beat the traffic, so we played a little more with the grandparents at the park then headed back to Charleston. 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there... especially this hunk who is a exceptional father and wonderful husband. 

We made mini handprint keychains from each of the boys. 

Emmett painted these mugs. Each mug comes in a kit I found at Michael's. You get the mug and paint for $1.50! Have your little artist paint, then bake for 30 minutes, and voila! An easy, affordable handmade gift that's sure to big a smile to the recipient's face.  

We had a wonderful weekend. I hope ya'll did too celebrating all the wonderful dads in your life.

Rainy Day Must Haves

Around here it seems like it can go a straight month with no rain, and then next thing you know, we get almost four straight days of rain. It's like God is playing catchup for all the dry days. Ugh... and let me tell you that after days of nonstop rain it has become abundantly clear to me that my wet weather gear is seriously lacking. I'm talking soggy shoes and fizzy, wet hair. So I'm working on a little list of wants and needs so I'll be prepared the next time it pours. 

First must have are a good quality pair of rain boots. These Hunter boots are so cute plus they're 50% off here making them less than $75!

Next, a large umbrella. I prefer a stick umbrella because they're easier to open and close which is essential when you're trying to get in an out of the rain quickly. You can find this pretty cactus umbrella here. 

I love a classic yellow rain jacket and this one is super cute. Love the big button and striped lining. Find it online here. 

I have wavy hair so when it's humid or rainy it turns into a frizzy, wavy mess. Living Proof makes some great hair products, so I'm sure this humidity shield would definitely help me have better hair days on rainy days. You can find it online here. 

I love a winged eyeliner and this Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner is sure to stay put so you can stay fabulous throughout the day. You can find it here. 

So there you have it... my list of must have rainy day essentials. I've got my cart ready so that I'll be prepared the next time it decides to rain for days on end. What are your must have items to keep you looking fabulous and staying dry?